Coming soon to a screen near you

Vegas, baby. Ask any self-respecting geek what’s the hottest thing in this town and it isn’t lap-dancers or crapshoots but gadgets and gizmos. Las Vegas is the venue for the gadget squad’s annual get-together, the Consumer Electronics Show. This year’s was the biggest ever: 150,000 specialists from all over the world in town for a week in the cavernous Las Vegas Convention Center, with almost 3,000 exhibitors displaying their wares. Televisions, computers, hi-fis, cameras, in-car entertainment systems, robots to make the tea: you name it, if it’s new and shiny, you’ll see it first at CES.

Only Vegas could host a show on this scale. Like the casinos down the Strip, once you’re inside the Convention Center it’s almost impossible to find your way out. I must have walked a good six miles each day without once stepping outside: there’s nowhere to sit, not a bite of nutritional food (unless you count hot dogs and doughnuts) and the toilets are filthy.